MSA Sidekick knee lever options

[Alfred Andersson]

I have finally managed to get hold of a pedal steel! It seems to be in good shape.

Thanks to Shane Frame with Youtube demo and how to tune MSA Sidekick I dared to buy it.


Now, the knee lever is with orginal setup RKR and lowering 4th and 8th with a 1/2.
This one is instead lowering 2nd and 8th with RKL.

What's the best thing to do?
With just a few hours with learning I think I'd prefer 4th and 8th.
Should I get back to original RKR or maybe change it to LKR? (Like the one in Shane Frame demo on YouTube)

Is it possible to add a knee lever to raise 4th and 8th?

[Sam Inglis]

More knowledgeable and experienced voices will chime in I am sure, but personally, I think that if I was going to have only one knee lever, I'd want it on the left side and I'd want it to raise, not lower, 4 and 8 by a semitone.

[Lane Gray]

The D* is much more useful than the E#

[Donny Hinson]

Lowering 4 & 8 is pretty much a given. It's an almost indispensable change, and most all players have that. And of course, a lever could be added to raise 4 & 8, but I'd put that off for the time being. My advice would be to play it with just the 4 & 8 lower for about a year, and learn all you can. Then, you can make the decision on whether to add parts to that guitar, or to sell and invest that money on a more capable "pro" model. I say this because adding the lever could cost you a couple of hundred, and you might first want to see how committed you really are to tackle this instrument.

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[Jerry Overstreet]

The idea of lowering 8 and 2 is that 2 open D# is the same note as 4 E lowered a half tone. Admittedly, it's not the same effect as lowering it from E, but I know of at least one pro player who doeesn't lower the 4th string due to it's inherent issue of not coming back to true known as hysteresis.

MSA was trying to get the most out of one knee. That 2 lower gives you a D which is a 7th tone.

I agree that it's better to have the KL on the the left than on your volume pedal foot, but moving a knee lever on a Sidekick/Red Baron would take a lot of machining and installing additional parts.

Best to stay with what you got and learn to use that to your best advantage then work on finding a guitar when you can with more options later on IMO.

No expert here, but the similar Red Baron was my first steel guitar that I played for 2 or 3 yrs. and the factory set up worked well to start me on learning the pedal steel, but best of luck to you however you proceed.

[Richard Sinkler]

Wasn't the pull-release changer not able to raise and lower a string, without modifications? That's the story I heard years ago about the Maverick. Since string 4 raised to F#, it couldn't also have a lower to D#.

Besides Lloyd not lowering 4, I believe Jimmy Day didn't either.

[Jerry Overstreet]

As I recall, and it's been a long time, my Red Baron had both the C pedal that raised 4 & 5 and also lowered 2, but I have been wrong before. Could be it only lowered 8, I may have forgotten.
There's an online manual somewhere that describes all that.
I defer to that and others with more knowledge on the subject.

[Jerry Overstreet]

https://steelguitar.com/manuals/MSA_Sid ... Manual.pdf

This is the Sidekick manual which shows both raising and lowering 4 but only lowering 8.

I'm still pretty sure my RB lowered 2 and 8. It had a knurled adjustment knob underneath the guitar to tune the open note

[Lane Gray]

Wasn't the pull-release changer not able to raise and lower a string, without modifications? That's the story I heard years ago about the Maverick. Since string 4 raised to F#, it couldn't also have a lower to D#.

Besides Lloyd not lowering 4, I believe Jimmy Day didn't either.

That will depend on the design of the finger. The 59 Wright I had in my hands a few days last week, and the Maverick, would have problems, but the sidekick pictured would have no more problem than a Marlen or a Simmons; which is to say none at all.

[Alfred Andersson]

Thanks! I aprichoate all your answers.
It makes sense.
With big effort I could reset the rods to standard setup. Lowering 4th and 8th.
Great guide from Michael Hutchison here:

viewtopic.php?t=212767

And this picture as reference.

viewtopic.php?p=3248179&hilit=Sidekick#p3248179

(Seems like bellcrank shaft has nylon bushings on this. Maybe a later version than mine?)

I have to restore the knee lever. It's sluddy everywhere and adjustment screws is in wrong place. (RKR --> RKL)

Is the direction of rod stops important? There is monted in both directions. I would like to have the round side against the bellcrank / finger.

Any thoughts about the adjustments?